I know that soda is not good for my body. I know that the CO2 in the soda is bad for my bones, stomach, etc, etc. And I know that I should be drinking something else more healthy in line with my new health lifestyle and diet.

I know all that. However, there is no bigger pleasure in life for me than drinking a icy diet coke after each of the yoga classes!!!!. I don’t know if it is the bubbles, or the secret formula, or my own brain, but I loooooove it.

As a result, I needed to write a post praising this amazing product (diet coke) as it is much better than diet pepsi, coke zero or sex on the beach. I dixit… Diet Coke rules!!!!

On Sunday, to celebrate our weekly day of vacation, we went to Acapulco’s water park to swim with dolphins. It is always said that dolphins are the smartest animals so I was really looking for an opportunity like this one to interact with them. The price per person for 1-hour swim with the dolphins was 1,300 pesos (US$130) so the expectations were high.

It looks like all men in the training are scared of dolphins because only women joined. I had the good luck to enjoy this activity with 5 really sweet girls from the training (as you know, I am always suffering and sacrificing myself;-). From left to right, they are Bonnie from Australia (remember her from my scuba diving last week), Colleen from Oregon, Jeanne from Phillipines, SuperGuille from Heaven, AnnaMaria from Hungary and Anastasia from Russia.

You can see all the pictures that I took of the event in my Flickr site (the link is on the right side of the blog). For this post, I want only to highlight my 4 main learnings of the day:

(1) Dolphins’ skin is softer than the ass of a baby

We swam with them a lot and touch them. I was surprised by how soft their skin is. Next time, I am going to ask them for their secret an create a skincare product for woman with that. They are so soft that you want to hug them. However, I hated the part when they tell you to kiss the dolphin in the mouth (can you believe it?). When my turn came, I looked at the dolphin at saw two problems with the mouth kiss: First, he was a male and second, he was a dolphin. So our love was doomed since the first moment so I decided to change at the last moment the mouth kiss by a cheek kiss as you can see in the picture.

Today, I went to the Walmart near the Hotel to do the groceries for the week (my plan is to have enough food in my room so I can have all dinners there.

Little did I know that I was going to find so many food items that I had never seen before outside Spain. It was a very pleasant surprise and it definitely made my day. Now I feel closer to home as I was born and raised surrounded by these items (papa/mama os echo de menos!:-).

Here is what I bought:

(1) Galletas “Marbu Dorada”: Simple butter cookies that were very often my breakfast when I was a kid. You don’t find simple, functional cookies like these ones in the US. Simplicity is the key

(2) Mejillones en Escabeche “Calvo”: Canned mussels in red sauce. Very typical in Spain as a tapa in the Aperitivo time (just before lunch). As a kid, I also used to eat sandwiches of these things

(3) “Flor de Esgueva” Cheese: It was so great to find this cheese!!! It is not a common cheese even in Spain but it is my dad’s favorite so we always have a piece of it at home (yummy!!). However, you have to pay a high price to get it in Mexico (it costs US$60 per kilo!)

(4) Navajas Al Natural “Cabo de Penas”: Navajas is a type of shellfish that I have only seen in Spain and in ChinaTown. It is look and slim and normally it is served grilled with some salt and garlic. It is probably one of my brother’s favorite meals. Here I found them canned

(5) Aceitunas rellenas de pimiento “La Cibeles”: Stuffed olives are very typical in Spain. However, here I found more variety in the stuffing. In addition to the typical ones in Spain (anchovies, pepper), I have bought some stuffed with spicy chorizo, blue cheese and yellowfin tuna (crazy innit?). Last remark, the brand is “La Cibeles” that is also a greek goddess and the name of the Square in Madrid where Real Madrid’s titles and victories are celebrated (for those of you not very knowledgable about soccer, Real Madrid is the best team ever of the Universe and beyond and also the team of my heart)

As you know, we are doing here 4 hours of intense exercise per day. As a result, we need to replenish as much energy as possible by eating like freaking lyons. Bikram Yoga doesn’t have any food restriction attached to it so we can eat whatever we want (they only things that are not allowed are alcohol or any kind of drug).

In the hotel package, we have included a buffet at lunch that is just freaking sweet (both in quantity and quality). Here is the video of the one we had today (keep in mind that the silver closed containers also have food that you can’t see in the video):

As you may have noticed, it includes an made-to-order Omelette Station and a Taqueria.

As a sample, I ate today for lunch:

(1) A glass of green juice (I really don’t know what it is made of but it tastes great) and a glass of orange-carrot juice (both freshly squeezed)

(2) A toasted bagel with cream cheese, lox and capers (to keep in touch with my inner new yorker)

(3) A taco of chorizo and cheese and one of huitlacoche and cheese (huitlacoche is my main food discovery of the week – thanks John for the hint!- It is black, really tasty and when I asked what was it, they told me it was the mushroom of the corn:-)

(4) 3 sausages with papas

(5) A bowl of fresh cut pineapple

(6) A glass of milk and a small croissant

(7) I also smuggled out of the restaurant a couple of small cereal boxes (Frosties and Chococrispies that I plan to eat in the evening)

Finally, I want to announce that I haven’t drunk caffeine since Sunday and after a couple of sleepy days, I now feel great!

I finally arrived to Mexico City on Friday afternoon after some delays in Newark.

I am going to stay here for a couple of days with Montse (a colleague I worked with back in Spain) and her boyfriend. I am always happy to be in Mexico as Mexican and Spanish (from Spain) cultures are very similar. I think that in Mexico, both virtues and vices from the Spanish culture are maximized. It looks like they took the spanish culture and brought it to the next level:

(1) On the virtue side, you will find tons of the joy of living, openness and laid-back-ness that I love from Spain multiplied by 50. Love it!

(2) On the vice side, don’t look for american punctuality here. Here spaniards look like anal punctuality-obsessed freaks in comparison. If you have a 9pm dinner, get there at 10:30pm and you will be the first person to arrive. And if a Mexican tells you “ahorita” (now), it means sometime in the next few hours:-)

Mexican food is amazing!!! In this trip, Montse and Edgar took me to an AWESOME tacos place for breakfast on Saturday. My new discoveries are: